• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Steve O’Connell AM: First of all, I would like to thank you, Sir Edward, and your officers for the work involved in bringing forward these alterations. I note your continuing protection of the environment and green spaces and I am encouraged by your comments around self-build. I know my colleague Andrew [Boff AM] will turn to the housing question a little bit later. I would like to pick up on two points, one around parking standards and another around the first time that community pubs have been commented on in the London Plan. On the parking standards, I noticed that...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Jenny Jones AM: On this substantive issue, I am very concerned that you are actually releasing too much industrial land because the vacancy rate on industrial land has actually halved in the past 15 years and is now lower than retail vacancies. I am concerned that you are talking about surplus land when, actually, it is not surplus because small businesses still need to be near centres of population and they still need to be near town centres. I just wonder how much research you have done on this.

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Fiona Twycross AM: I am going to shift the question a little bit away from housing. Obviously, we all recognise the need for housing, but there is a danger that we create a false dichotomy between the use of land for housing and the use of land for other purposes. Does the Plan recognise and deal with the tension between the need to provide land for housing and the need for all other uses including employment and infrastructure?

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Tom Copley AM: I want to move on to talk about affordable housing. Would a London-wide percentage target for affordable housing be more effective at delivering the homes that Londoners need the most?

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Stephen Knight AM: We have already heard a little bit about the issues of housing supply and the deficiencies in the Plan and so I will not repeat some of what has been said. However, it is clear that the inspector was willing to sign off this plan really only on the basis that there would be a further review to address the issues before 2016. I noticed in the response that the Mayor has made to the inspector - or it may have been to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) - that a review is already...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Nicky Gavron AM: Sir Edward, thank you very much for that introduction. The big headline out of this Plan is that the Mayor’s target is not high enough to meet the housing that London needs. It does not even take the target that is given in his own evidence. We have a housing crisis. Why are you content to move forward with a Plan that does not meet London’s housing need?

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 21 January 2015

Kit Malthouse AM: I wanted to ask specifically about Tooley Street. As a fellow cyclist, you will know that the road surface is appalling, the management of pedestrian crossings is terrible, there are buses, cars and lights everywhere and it is chaos.

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 21 January 2015

Richard Tracey AM: Mr Mayor, you mentioned the rather unfortunate confusion at London Bridge Station, which looks as though it is going to go on for a good many months or indeed over a year. Given that a good many people have previously used the Southeastern rail from Waterloo East to London Bridge, which is now not possible, can you talk seriously to Transport for London (TfL) about putting more bus services between Waterloo and this area - possibly some sort of shuttle bus, as we often see when stations are closed - and indeed also of course using river...

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 21 January 2015

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: Mr Mayor, given the important role taxis played in keeping Londoners moving in the bus strike, can you confirm if you have read the [Assembly] Transport Committee’s report, Future Proof, on taxis and private hire and when we can expect your response?

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 21 January 2015

Kit Malthouse AM: Mr Mayor, you referred to the very valuable work that is being done with the CST around security for the Jewish community, but you will also be aware that in France in particular there have been some horrific revenge attacks on the Muslim community with hand grenades thrown into mosques, shootings and all this kind of stuff. I wondered whether similar work had been done in London. I know a number of mosques have received hate mail and death threats.